Body and soul in balance
May I introduce myself? My name is Julia Onken, and I was an essentate.
At first glance, a sentence that one expects in a guidebook. But Julia Onken, the author of "Back to Balance," is a psychologist and a therapist - and thus someone who should not have any mental problems. But she, too, has been submitting to diets for decades and "having dealt with all kinds of psychic aberrations in innumerable psychoanalytic sessions" - but she has not found a tangible cause for her weight problem.
The only solution that came to her mind: Why not start a group of fellow sufferers to talk openly about the weighty issue? Onken's experiences and experiences have been summarized in her book. Most important finding: Almost all of the women who come from all sorts of professional groups made their first dietary attempts when they still brought an absolute normal weight on the scales. But over the years, diet and yo-yo effects steadily increased weight. Every woman has wandered through her own individual path of suffering.
Three weight biographies
Nina was a child rather than overweight. But when she needed new clothes, she always heard the worried voice of the mother, that the child had "already increased again." Nina immediately got negative and thought she was too fat. But she realized too late that her mother was worried about how to pay for her clothes in the postwar period of need. For a long time she had been caught between periods of hunger and gagging during a time of suffering.
Fiona thought even as a child, she was too chubby, since she was teased by her classmates. When her first friend even gave her the nickname "Hummel" at the age of 16, this laid the foundation for a catastrophic dieting career. That could be seen on the pictures of then a normal teenager could not prevent that. After the birth of her second child, she continued to fight against herself and her body: During the day she ate just as disciplined as she managed the daily routine of her family. And at night, when everything was asleep, she fell over the fridge.
Even Julia Onken, the author herself, describes in the guide ruthlessly her eating disorders: how she started at 19 the first weight loss attempt. How she envied the model Twiggy's boyish body and small breasts. And how she set herself on a hunger cure to more closely resemble her idol.
Being overweight is not the real problem
All stories have a common denominator, as the author aptly summarizes: "It's not the preponderance that's the problem, it's the madness of being overweight at the very beginning, at a time when it has not been." The more kilos the body collects, the worse the women torture and mortify themselves. But how can one regain balance with his body? According to Onken, this only works if you start to re-determine your own life - and, above all, to find your way back to yourself.
The author describes impressively in her book how the women in her group try to implement this. The members of the group have to deal with long suppressed desires and needs - because you are often thirsty, tired, exhausted or sad - and instead of drinking, sleeping or telling someone about the worries, you better get something to eat. The counselor accompanies the group on their detour to inner balance, Starting with the discarding of the scales on the search for beautiful underwear in large sizes to the discovery of "mental whole foods". For one thing the women have to learn in painstaking work: The goal is not always a smaller clothing size.
Julia Onken: Back to balance. From losing weight and the luck to find one's own measure. Beck's series, Verlag C.H. Beck. 9,95 Euro.
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